Don Davis is awesome. He’s done a ton of art for NASA over the years, including the Stanford Torus concept I use as my Tumblr background.
And this is why we retitle our image file names, yeah?
They should have called it “We have the one of the largest endowments in the country and you have tens of thousands of dollars in student loans; how about giving us more of your money, asshole” dot jpg.
14 notes (via skornhaber)
wnyc:
Bobby McFerrin plays the audience. Must watch.
(and that looks like our John Schaefer seated on the left!)
-Jody, BL Show-
I can’t stop smiling!
Prospective Titles for my New YA Novel Series
Prospective Titles for my New Young Adult Series, Starring Ham Sanderson: Teen Wizard Detective
- Ham Sanderson and the Beaker of Mayonnaise
- Ham Sanderson and the Sorcerer’s Tube
- Ham Sanderson and the Filet of Souls
- Ham Sanderson and the Bouquet of Dinosaurs
- Ham Sanderson and the Storm of Nutmeg
- Ham Sanderson and the Oval Dimensions
- Ham Sanderson and the Bludgeon of Pleasure
- Ham Sanderson and the Truthful Dichotomy
- Ham Sanderson and the Case of the Spider Phalanx
- Ham Sanderson and the Bag of Rabbits
- Ham Sanderson and the Pork of Melchizidek
- Ham Sanderson and the Fragile Complexion
- Ham Sanderson and the Flagon of Tuesdays
- Ham Sanderson and the Archetype of Molluscs
- Ham Sanderson and the Badge of Interest
Alternately: Ham Sanderson and the Names of Future Albums By The Rock Band Cake
gaws:
Oak Tree by Michael Craig-Martin. 1973
Accompanying text;
Q. To begin with, could you describe this work?
A. Yes, of course. What I’ve done is change a glass of water into a full-grown oak tree without altering the accidents of the glass of water.
Q. The accidents?
A. Yes. The colour, feel, weight, size …
Q. Do you mean that the glass of water is a symbol of an oak tree?
A. No. It’s not a symbol. I’ve changed the physical substance of the glass of water into that of an oak tree.
Q. It looks like a glass of water.
A. Of course it does. I didn’t change its appearance. But it’s not a glass of water, it’s an oak tree.
Q. Can you prove what you’ve claimed to have done?
A. Well, yes and no. I claim to have maintained the physical form of the glass of water and, as you can see, I have. However, as one normally looks for evidence of physical change in terms of altered form, no such proof exists.
Q. Haven’t you simply called this glass of water an oak tree?
A. Absolutely not. It is not a glass of water anymore. I have changed its actual substance. It would no longer be accurate to call it a glass of water. One could call it anything one wished but that would not alter the fact that it is an oak tree.
Q. Isn’t this just a case of the emperor’s new clothes?
A. No. With the emperor’s new clothes people claimed to see something that wasn’t there because they felt they should. I would be very surprised if anyone told me they saw an oak tree.
Q. Was it difficult to effect the change?
A. No effort at all. But it took me years of work before I realised I could do it.
Q. When precisely did the glass of water become an oak tree?
A. When I put the water in the glass.
Q. Does this happen every time you fill a glass with water?
A. No, of course not. Only when I intend to change it into an oak tree.
Q. Then intention causes the change?
A. I would say it precipitates the change.
Q. You don’t know how you do it?
A. It contradicts what I feel I know about cause and effect.
Q. It seems to me that you are claiming to have worked a miracle. Isn’t that the case?
A. I’m flattered that you think so.
Q. But aren’t you the only person who can do something like this?
A. How could I know?
Q. Could you teach others to do it?
A. No, it’s not something one can teach.
Q. Do you consider that changing the glass of water into an oak tree constitutes an art work?
A. Yes.
Q. What precisely is the art work? The glass of water?
A. There is no glass of water anymore.
Q. The process of change?
A. There is no process involved in the change.
Q. The oak tree?
A. Yes. The oak tree.
Q. But the oak tree only exists in the mind.
A. No. The actual oak tree is physically present but in the form of the glass of water. As the glass of water was a particular glass of water, the oak tree is also a particular oak tree. To conceive the category ‘oak tree’ or to picture a particular oak tree is not to understand and experience what appears to be a glass of water as an oak tree. Just as it is imperceivable it also inconceivable.
Q. Did the particular oak tree exist somewhere else before it took the form of a glass of water?
A. No. This particular oak tree did not exist previously. I should also point out that it does not and will not ever have any other form than that of a glass of water.
Q. How long will it continue to be an oak tree?
A. Until I change it.
themesong 12/15: I haven’t listened to this since I was a child
[warning: contains Christian ska-punk]
I was raised in a non-denominational Christian home, so my first real exposure to any sort of rock music was through Christian rock. It was really all I listened to until late in high school. At the time, I was totally into it, because it was rock music and it had lyrics that agreed with the way I thought about the world.
Blah blah, college, blah blah people who are different than I am are cool, blah blah evolutionary biology class yada yada yada, atheist*.
Last week I chatted with my high school buddy Frank. He told me Five Iron Frenzy is recording a new album. Five Iron Frenzy was a third-wave Christian ska-punk band, and it was, no joke, my favorite band for like six years. Maybe even longer than that. Certainly from 1997 onward, and I still liked them enough in 2003 to travel five hours to see them in concert.
My favorite Five Iron song was “Every New Day.” It’s about wanting to return to a childlike state of curiosity and energy, seeing every new day as if it was truly new. And, naturally, asking Jesus for some help with that. The bridge lyrics, excerpted below, adorned pretty much every writable surface I owned in middle and high schools.
Man versus himself.
Man versus machine.
Man versus the world.
Mankind versus me.
The struggles go on.
The wisdom I lack.
The burdens keep piling
Up on my back.
So hard to breathe,
To take the next step.
The mountain is high;
I wait in the depths.
Yearning for grace,
And hoping for peace.
Dear God,
Increase!
It’s super-weird to listen to a song that was your favorite song years after you’ve last heard it and realize that you’re essentially a different person from the punked-out Christian rock fifteen-year-old who loved that song. You’re the same person, but you’re a different person, too. I can barely see it from here.
I haven’t listened to this since I was a child.
[lyrics]
*Or rather, igtheist, but atheist for all practical purposes.
